INDEX
Emory Events Calendar, Page 2
Police Record, Page 2
Horoscopes, Page 9
Crossword Puzzle, Page 8
Staff Editorial, Page 6
On Fire, Page 11
THE EMORY WHEEL Since 1919
The Independent Student Newspaper of Emory University www.emorywheel.com
Friday, December 7, 2012 STUDENT GOVERNMENT
Volume 94, Issue 25 Every Tuesday and Friday
ACTIVISM
CONSTRUCTION
SGA Offers ‘$5,000 to Change Emory’
Bishops Hall to Be Demolished This Month
By Rupsha Basu Staff Writer
By Karishma Mehrotra Asst. News Editor
Students often have moments of genius that begin with the words “what if” and eventually get lost in the bustle of busy schedules and extra-curricular activities. Next spring, however, Emory students will have the opportunity to develop and actualize an idea they have always wanted to bring to campus. “$5,000 to Change Emory” is the Student Government Association’s (SGA) grant competition that is open to all students. The goal of the project is for students to have the opportunity to execute an idea that will foster community among all divisions of Emory. “Basically, we realized every student — at one point or another — thinks, ‘It would be cool if,’ but they often just don’t have the funding or resources to turn that awesome idea into action,” said SGA President and College senior Ashish Gandhi. College senior Michael Goldberg first introduced this idea to SGA. He said Northwestern University conducted a similar competition and that he wanted to bring it to Emory. The application, which will be available on the Office of Student Leadership and Service’s website, is not limited to individual students. Student organizations may apply as a group as well as classes and unofficial groups of students. $5,000 to Change Emory is the first of its kind. Monetary grants usually come from national organizations, corporations or foundations. Moreover, these grants usually go to University departments and institutions for the purpose of research or funding for large-scale projects.
Wagner, who was out of his office at the time protesters entered the building. One protester loudly “booed” the proposal from Hauk and was immediately quieted by the crowd. “As you can see, business cannot be conducted in a hallway full of people,” Hauk said in response to the heckler. “[The protesters] are actually impeding the operations of the office of the University.” Some protesters were unsatisfied with Hauk’s response. “You won’t let us study, we won’t let you work,” one protester yelled.
The demolition of the currently vacant Bishop’s Hall, as part of Phase II of the Candler School of Theology construction, will begin this month, according to University architect Jen Fabrick. It is scheduled to end in July of 2014 and will be named in memory of Rita Anne Rollins, O. Wayne Rollins’ first grandchild. The new building in place of Bishop’s hall will house the Pitts Theological Library, study rooms, a classroom, a teaching chapel and some gallery space, Fabrick said. The entire completed complex will stretch until in front of Cannon Chapel. University leadership created this two-phased design in 2006 after the design and costs were studied for many years, according to Fabrick. The total cost will be $29.4 million, she added. Some of the funding will come from a $15 million gift from the O. Wayne Rollins Foundation received on Dec. 19 as well as various other donors, a Jan. 23 Emory Wheel article said. “In the combined facility, Candler and Pitts together will have a front door located immediately across from the Cannon Chapel, which we believe is crucial to our community life,” dean of the Candler School of Theology Jan Love said in the Wheel article. “Candler and [the] library outgrew [Bishop’s Hall] a long time ago. The old building has served us well, but we need well protected, state-ofthe-art facilities to protect the Pitts Library collections and to reunite its physical plant with Candler.” In a Jan. 19 University press release, Director of the O. Wayne
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James Crissman/Asst. Photography Editor
More than 200 protesters moved their Quadrangle walkout protest to inside the Administration Building on Tuesday. They demanded a meeting with University President James W. Wagner regarding the recent departmental changes. In the six-hour protest, the students and faculty were able to meet with Wagner for three hours.
Protesters Confront Admins at Sit-In By Dustin Slade Staff Writer More than 200 University students and faculty protested in front of and inside the administration building on the Quadrangle Tuesday afternoon, voicing their concerns about the department changes announced earlier this semester and demanding a meeting with University President James W. Wagner. The protest culminated in a private three-hour meeting with Wagner, who called Dean of the College Robin Forman on speakerphone. The walkout was organized by the student re-visioning committee
as part of the #EmoryCuts movement. The movement developed in response to Forman’s plan to reallocate resources and eliminate certain programs and departments within the College, which Forman announced in a University-wide email Sept. 14.
Staging a Sit-In After the initial event on the Quad, several protesters shuffled into the administration building to occupy the fourth-floor hallway outside the offices of University administrators, including Wagner’s. Protesters sang as they marched from the Quad to the fourth floor,
ACADEMIC FEATURE
chanting “no transparency, no trust” and “they say cut that, we say fight back.” The protesters remained in the hallway for six hours. More than 100 students and faculty members occupied the fourth-floor hallway at around 1 p.m. not only to show distaste for the department changes, but also to demonstrate support for those directly affected. The protest arose much to the surprise of University administrators. Gary Hauk, vice president and deputy to the president, exited his office at one point to address the crowd of protesters. He explained to the group that he would schedule a meeting with
EMORY POINT
FEATURE
Exploring Emory’s Pre-Professional Trend By Nicholas Goodwin Contributing Writer Ask an Emory student about the pre-professional culture, and you’ll probably hear the same thing: yes, we are very much a pre-professional school. However, with a student body of 7,656 undergraduates, only 23 percent are actually registered in prehealth, pre-law and BBA programs. Emory’s College of Arts and Sciences is perhaps less pre-professional than originally thought. That said, while the first five years of the past decade saw a steady increase in humanities majors at Emory, the latter half has brought a decline, according to College Dean Robin Forman. Many are pointing to economic pressures and a controversial advising system as causes for the changing academic environment.
It’s All About the Money, Or Is It? In light of a struggling national economy and a stubbornly high unemployment rate, conventional wisdom encourages students to place more emphasis on credentials that will land them a place in the job market. Forman says that this economic climate attracts job-conscious students to schools like Emory, where
strong business and pre-medical reputations translate into a greater perceived sense of job security. Judy Raggi Moore, senior lecturer in French and Italian and director of the Italian and Catholic studies programs, cites “the confluence of an upper administration that’s not in the humanities, the economic crisis of 2008 and a growing public challenging of high tuition costs at universities” as key causes behind the rise of pre-professionalism at Emory. Senior lecturer and economics professor Samiran Banerjee agrees, noting that the trend is “symptomatic of what’s going on in society: college education is getting more expensive and there is no learning for the sake of knowledge alone.” Forman cites a growing tendency on the part of politicians, in Washington as well as around the country, to view college from a vocational perspective. The politics behind government funding for research universities have played a significant role in the disproportionate expansion of certain departments. Rachelle Spell, senior lecturer in biology, has seen a similar trend play out at Emory. The number of majors has nearly doubled in the past 10 years, according to Spell,
Emory Point Sees Slow Business By Karishma Mehrotra Asst. News Editor Courtesy of Emory Photo/Video
Choosing a Commencement Speaker, No Easy Task By Jordan Friedman Associate Editor When the University announced neurosurgeon Ben Carson as the 2012 commencement speaker in the spring, nearly 500 professors, students and alumni signed a letter in which they expressed concerns over the fact that Carson doesn’t believe in evolution. While those who signed the letter weren’t calling for the University to reverse their commencement speaker decision, they called on the Emory community “to also consider the enormous positive impact of science on our lives and how that science rests squarely on the shoulders of evolution,” according to the letter.
This controversy over Carson’s views is one instance among several in the past few decades where the selection of the commencement’s speaker has sparked debate and discussion on Emory’s campus, especially in regard to finding a “big name” speaker versus lesser-known individuals who have made a major impact in the world. When the University began its search for a 2013 commencement speaker in the spring, the initial list of possibilities ranged from President Obama and
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Jackie Waynick isn’t the only one at Emory Point who says that business is slow. Very slow. To her and the rest of the managers of the open retailers in the still-developing complex located across the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Clifton Road, construction is their worst enemy and their best friend. “Horrible, disastrous, treacherous,” Waynick, store manager of the recently-opened Lizard Thicket, said to describe the continuing construction. Waynick said a view from Clifton Rd. of Emory Point does not visibly showcase the multiple open stores in the second block of the shopping and restaurant complex. Passing traffic can only see the buzz of construction, “Opening Soon” signs and windows that look
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